My Medical Bills Are Being Paid By Medicare. Does That Change My Personal Injury Lawsuit?

Dealing with Medicare laws has become an increasingly complicated area for New Orleans personal injury attorneys. Under federal law, Medicare has a right to recover any payments it made for medical treatment.

This right extends to taking a portion of the damages awarded in a personal injury lawsuit.

There are very strict regulations surrounding the requirements to report information regarding the settlement of a personal injury case to Medicare. If you are receiving Medicare, they will assert a lien against the proceeds of any settlement or judgment in your case.

When you receive financial compensation, Medicare is required to be reimbursed for its expenses within sixty days.

In some cases, Medicare may also have a right to take an additional portion of any financial compensation as payment for anticipated future medical expenses. This is known as a Medicare set-aside. When long term treatment is required, this set-aside may be extremely large.

There are serious financial penalties that may be imposed both on you and your personal injury attorney for failure to comply with Medicare laws.

Your attorney does not want to work hard to obtain compensation for you only to see Medicare take most of it away. If you are receiving Medicare – or may soon be eligible to receive it – it is important that you communicate this information to your personal injury attorney so that he or she can act to protect your interests.

If you have questions about an accident that left you or a family member seriously injured, why not speak with a New Orleans Accident Attorney – call us at (504) 527-8767 for a free consultation.